LYNNFIELD ― It’s official: the management, control and custody of the Meeting House is back in the town’s hands.
The Select Board voted unanimously Monday night to delegate the responsibility of all matters pertaining to the operation of the Old Meeting House to the Historical Commission.
“We feel that we are better off managing the building ourselves,” said Select Board Chair Dick Dalton. “We decided it would be best to not have to go through the RFP (request for proposals) process. We have put management back in control of the town so there are no questions about what an outsider might be doing with the property. By managing it ourselves, we can hold people accountable, which we haven’t done for many years. Now, we know we can control it and we will not allow the building to be neglected.”
The vote comes months after the town severed all ties with the Lynnfield Historical Society, an organization that, for many years, had managed the Meeting House under a mistaken assumption that it had authority to do so.
Town Counsel Thomas Mullen said he had been asked to give advice on “whether and to what extent the Select Board may authorize the Lynnfield Historical Society, Inc. (the ‘society’) to manage, use and occupy the Old Meeting House.
“I must advise that no such management, use or occupancy be permitted,” Mullen said.
Mullen went on to say that, under current law, private organizations such as the Society cannot be given control of a town-owned property to run and profit from as it sees fit without a public bidding process (RFP) designed to ensure that the town receives the most advantageous terms possible.
If the Select Board wished to allow a private organization to manage the building as part of a concession arrangement, Mullen said he would advise that “a formal request for proposals process be followed to ensure satisfaction of all applicable public bidding requirements, that the selected proposer prove its history of tax compliance, and that rigorous accounting standards be applied.
“I understand that the Select Board is instead considering whether to ask the Lynnfield Historical Commission, which, unlike the Society, is a public body of the town, to manage the Meeting House. Such a relationship would have the advantage of not requiring any bidding or entangling the town in a contract with a private entity.”
Dalton said Tuesday the question before the Select Board was simple.
“Last night, it was a very narrow question before us and it came down to whether we have the right to grant that right to anyone, regardless of IRS standing, without going through an RFP process, and the answer is we do not,” he said. “Without an RFP we simply do not have the right to grant it to anyone, regardless of IRS standing or anything else without going through the RFP process. The long-standing relationship, whatever it was, with the society is not a valid legal relationship. The society is simply an outside organization with no rights. The issue is, we needed to put management back in control of the town and then there is no question that we are doing this properly.”
Mullen said it was clear that the town never had authority to convey the property to any outside group unless after public bidding.
“If you want to have that arrangement with a private organization, you need to structure a very tight RFP,” he said. “By asking the Historical Commission, that has the benefit of simplicity by avoiding public bidding and entrapment of any private organization.”
Mullen said the society is a Massachusetts nonprofit corporation that has lost its tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service, failed to file tax returns for several years and was for some years out of compliance with the Attorney General’s Division of Public Charities.
“Last month, the society successfully registered with the said division, but it has not yet filed any annual reports, and I am not aware that it has had any success in regaining federal tax-exempt status,” Mullen said.
“I was surprised to learn that the town has, for many years, without any written agreement, permitted the society to arrange rentals of the Meeting House, to collect rent payments and to apply the proceeds to the cost of maintaining the building, all without periodic accountings.”
Dalton said the town is in the process of purchasing new chairs, tables and other items for the Meeting House and that all of the old tables and chairs have been removed from the building.
“In the past, the quality of work inside the building has been poor quality and the storage of the chairs and tables was just dangerous,” Dalton said. “We want everything to be first class. We are so much better off now that we can make sure that the town can not only maintain quality there but improve it. Now that the town has control, people will see marked improvement inside and outside not only at the Meeting House, but at the Pope-Richard House as well.
“Never have I had more glowing compliments than since we have done this beautiful work on the common, and now having the ability to continue that work with the buildings, it will only get better. We know this is the right direction.”